The Illustrated London News is in Newspapers.
7th May 1853. It is time now that we speak of Millais [aged 23] - Millais the Pre-Raffaelite; the "pretender" Millais that was; the "usurper" Millais that is; the "legitimate" Millais that perhaps (much virtue in that little word) may be; and who has certainly a larger crowd of admirers in his little corner in the Middle Room than all the Academicians put together command; ay, and a crowd intent on what they are about—a good sticking crowd, who, having once taken up their position opposite the object of their homage. are not inclined very soon to move on. but stand there gaping, and staring. and commenting upon the wondrous effects, without any regard to the pressure from behiml of crowds pre. paring to occupy their place. Truth to say. Mr. Millais. in this "Order of Release", has achieved for himself an "order of merit" worth more than any academic hononr. and has earned a fame which a whole corporate academy might be proud to portion amongst its constituent members. Whilst we admit— nay, assert this—we would by no means wish to be understood as enrolling ourselves incontinently of this young artist's "party " (for there is partisanship in everything, even in art); but simply as asserting that Pre-Raffaelitism (or rather the artists who have been foolishly styled Pre-Raffaelites) is a "great fact." and perhaps may lead to the regeneration of art in this country; and we may add that those who did us the honour to read our remarks upon this very subject last year. will perceite that what we now state is perfectly consistent with, indeed confirms, what we then. with somewhat more of reserve and hesitation. put forth. But more of this anon. when we come to engrave the Order of Release," which we hope to do next week. In the meantime. we will only add that the subject is simply that of a wife, with child in her arms. coming with an order of release for her husband, who has been taken in the Civil Wars. The husband, overcome with emotions, and weak from a recent wound (his arm is in a sling). can but fall upon her neck and weep: the woman, "firm of purpose," sheds no tear; she nas none to shed; but her eye is red and heavy with weeping and waking; and she looks at the stern and unconcerned gaoler with a proud look. expressing that she has won the reward for all her trouble past. The colouring. the textural execution, are marvellous (for these degenerate days); but of these we have not room to say more at present. Mr. Millais has another picture, "A Proscribed Royalist, 1651," concealed in the trunk of an old tree, whom a young lady stealthily visits to supply him with bread; but, though itself a capital specimen of executive skill, it by no means carries the poetic interest of the other work, nor in colouring is it so harmonious.
There is too much "romantic" in the treatment of this classical theme; but what shall or can be said of R.S. Stanhope's intensely Gothic rendering of the story of "Penelope" has given a blackness to his outline and background, and a piecemeal, inlaid effect to his composition, totally destructive of aerial perspective, which is plainly derived from the leaden setting and general effects of stained glass in its transition from the mosaic of thirteenth to the picorial character of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. We feel inclined to say that for it to be possible for a painter of the present day to show such an entire want of fitness and "keeping" between his subject and style not only the want of imaginative sympathy, but also a deficiency of artistic feeling. Yet it is impossible to deny the tender regretfulness of Penelope's expression and the delicate beauty of the flesh tints. Probably, however, we should see fewer of these instances of perverted taste did not critics who have to establish a character of superior connoisseurship find in them so much more than unsophisticated persons and the body of artists themselves can discover. The picture by the same artist [Stanhope] of "Rispah", watching at twilight, behind the black trunks of a clump of cedars, the bodies of her sons and those of the sons of Michal, is impressively conceived and far more legitimate in its effects. (494).
12th May 1866. Mr. Leighton, in a picture nearly as long but narrower than the "Procession of Cimabue," has at last, in some particulars, surpassed that early work. The present picture contains no less than thirty-six figures, of larger size than those in the "Cimabue"— of which, by-the-way, there were about fifty. The subject, like that of the work which nine years ago at once made the artist celebrated, is a processional one, but more friezelike as regards composition — in this respect not unbefitting the classical theme. It is a procession of Syracusan maidens to the temple of Diana to propitiate the virgin goddess on the eve of the marriage of one of their member. The subject was suggested by the second idyl of Theocritus, wherein incidental mention of the custom is made. But it is evident that the picture relates to a period subsequent to that of the Syracusan bucolic poet, and during the Roman domination, seeing that among the spectators of the procession are introduced two Romans and an old cynic, who turns from the splendid ceremony with scornful derision. By selecting Sicily as the scene of the procession the artist was enabled to choose from among the various races which had successively settled in the island, and thus diversify the types of his figures. Accordingly, we have a swarthy beggar, say from Mauritania; and Phoenician and Carthaginian, as well as Roman, damsels; the Hellenic character, however, if not type, in everything very properly prevails. The procession advances within the peribolus or the temple and along its marble platform; the peristyle is seen to the left; the lower portion of a statue of the dreaded goddess (who was reputed to often kill women with her arrows) is visible near the temple, with the attributes of the Greek Artemis; within or near the sacred incloeure are the dark cypress, the olive, the pine, and the orange tree; beyond there is a lower range of the island mountains, and then the deep blue line of the sea. The point of view is placed so low that great port of the figures cut sharply against the sky, which (to be the more vivid foil) is more uniformly white than would be seen in nature. The procession is headed, to the left, by priestesses, the foremost raising her hands invokingly, the remainder bearing sacrificial vessels and instruments, including scissors to cut a votive lock of hair. Next come a group of lovely maidens dressed, according to usage on performing this ceremony, in their richest attire, crowned with flowers, wreathing garlands. A space in the centre is reserved for the noble bride leading a tamed lioness — an incident specially alluded to by Theocritus. Then follow, balancing the group already mentioned, a cluster of other maidens, with more straggling followers, leading, or bearing the cubs of, tame tigers, panthers, and smaller feline animals — this part of the ceremony being, it appears, peculiar to the island. It will be understood from this detailed description that a subject affording better or more material for a brilliant scenic spectacle of external beauty, natural and physical, could hardly be found; and as such it loses nothing from the noble decorative talent of the painter. The picture is, indeed, almost bewilderingly fascinating in its wealth of beauty and elegance, splendour of colour, and brilliancy of light. The draperies are less conventional than in any recent work by Mr. Leighton; and the style, though mannered, is most seductive. Judged, however, by a higher standard than the decorative, we miss some of the accidental charm and the inner meaning of nature; and it may be questioned whether deeper insight would not (granting it a festive display) have given to some of the maidens, under such circumstances, an expression of virginal bashfulness or of pious reverence when passing the statue and at the threshhold of the temple of the goddess of a still living religion. Nevertheless, the artist's very laudable ambition, as regards scale and choice of subject, ae well as his particular faculty, are so rare in our school that they can hardly be valued too highly.